Ore., Calif., require transgender health coverage

The transgender community has picked up significant momentum securing health coverage in recent years. San Francisco in 2001 became the first U.S. city to cover sex reassignment surgeries for government employees. Seattle, Portland, Ore. and Berkeley Calif., have followed suit.

Large employers are increasingly offering coverage for a broad spectrum of care, including gender reassignment surgeries.

State regulators don't have authority to force insurance companies to cover specific procedures, like hormone therapy or genital reconstruction. But they've told insurers that if they provide breast reduction for patients with back pain, they can't deny it for a gender reassignment that's been deemed medically necessary. Insurers could unilaterally exclude coverage of, say, breast implants, but it would have to apply to all policyholders equally, including breast-cancer patients.

"We've received the Oregon Insurance Division's directive to implement this new mandate, and we are working to ensure that our members' future coverage aligns," Scott Burton, a spokesman for Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, said in a statement.

"We're still assessing the impact of the ruling, and will continue to monitor state and federal guidance on this topic," said Kathy Born, a spokeswoman for LifeWise, another large insurer in Oregon.

When Ray Crider heard the news, he danced around his apartment with his wife. A 28-year-old transgender man living in Portland, Crider fought a long battle to convince a previous employer to include transgender services in his policy.

Although he was insured, Crider paid thousands of dollars out of his pocket for testosterone treatment and mental health care before winning his fight for coverage of gender identity. He finally got a double mastectomy, covered by insurance, a year ago, he said, but not before the binder he used to flatten his chest required several emergency room trips because it constricted his breathing.

"This was one of the most incredible things that could ever happen," Crider said, "to know that there's a state full of people who won't have to go through what I went through."